AIDS-spreading its tentacles Cyril D'Cunha
Nearly 20 years ago, the first case of HIV was reported from Goa. Since then there has been a steady rise in such HIV positive cases, up from a low 3, all male to 473 in the following decade, reaching 1029 (634 male, 395 female) in 2005 and declining to 940 (595 male, 345 female) in the following year and then till May 2007 recording just 414 (269 male, 145 female). Did this decline mean that the disease is being substantially controlled?
Not as far as the spread of the diseases HIV/AIDS is concerned, said Dr. Dilraj Kaur, Project Director, Goa State AIDS Control Society (GSACS). The numbers are still substantial, she said and the disease is changing profiles.
Prior to the demolition of the red-light area of Baina, there was focused attention there, but now the disease has spread all over Goa, felt Dr. Kaur and that the GSACS would be going in for revised mapping. There has to be visibility for the programme, she stated, which entails combined efforts from the people, media and the NGOs to control the disease. Right now, 10 groups of NGOs were working with us, targeting high-risk groups, she said. She pointed out that many doctors refused to handle HIV patients.
Dynamics of HIV can be broken if the spread is controlled to reach the bridge population, she added. There was a need to have voluntary parent-child counseling centres with motivation training, blood safety programmes, healthy people should donate blood to eliminate professional donors and gender sensitive programmes from urban to rural areas. Dr. Kaur pointed out that over half the victims were women, many of them pregnant or with STD. However, nearly two-thirds of HIV cases were reported from the coastal talukas of Mormugao, Salcete, Tiswadi and Bardez, with nearly 86% of the infected from the age group 15-49 years. The frightening thing is that females of younger age group are affected by the disease more than the males, with the sexual route being the predominant transmission mode of over 92%. The mother-to-child transmission, infected syringes and needles and blood and blood products accounted for the rest. Gender disparities, poverty, unemployment, patriarchy, cultural and behavioural attitudes are some of the factor leading to the spread of HIV and AIDS and includes alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual abuse, social and cultural beliefs, superstitions, slow degradation of social ethics and moral values.
Commercial sex is prevalent in almost all the states, which includes brothels, home or street based and using call girls. Pre-marital mandatory testing for HIV is being voiced, though how much it will help in preventing the disease spread is the question. If pre-marital sex were absent or rare, testing before marriage would turn up virtually no HIV positive results. The mean time from initial infection to diagnosis of AIDS is around 8 to 10 years.
Times of India - Goa Plus, July 20, 2007
